30 Jan
2007
30 Jan
'07
7:31 p.m.
"William Donzelli" <wdonzelli at gmail.com> wrote:
Cool! I'm a pioneer, having collected these things for close to 25 years.
Even longer than me. I started in May 1986 (yes, it'll soon be 21 years
of computer collecting here ;-))
What
exactly is it about that machine that makes you say that?
How does it differ from any other (similarly well-preserved)
PDP-11/70?
(FWIW: I don't know either the seller or Jim Willing; I'm just curious).
Jim Willing was one of the pioneers in this computer collecting hobby
(I apply pioneers to those of us that were doing this seriously over
ten years ago - before this list, and before there even was a hobby). Well, I'm not sure I would call it collecting in
the normal sense of the
word. I want to keep these machines running, useable, and in use.
Just like me again. I keep on saying at HPCC that I am not an HP
calculator collector. Yes, I have old HP calculators (handhelds and
desktops), but I use them. I keep them operational, I do program them, I
do use them for calculators. And I don't try to obtain every cosmetic
version (that is, with differnt position of the serial number label,
etc), but I am interested in at least seeing versions with substantially
different internals (like the 2 very different logic boards that were
used in the HP80 financial calculator).
No, I am not intersted in having machines on the shelf in original
condition. I want to be able to sue them, investigate them, and so on.
-tony